Animal Bites and Rabies

How Rabies is Spread

How do people get rabies?
People usually get rabies from the bite of a rabid animal. It is also possible, but quite rare, that people may get rabies if infectious material from a rabid animal, such as saliva, gets directly into their eyes, nose, mouth, or a wound.

It is very rare to get rabies by any other route other than a bite of a rabid animal.

What animals can give rabies?
Any mammal can get rabies. The most common wild reservoirs of rabies are raccoons, skunks, bats, foxes, and coyotes. Domestic mammals can also get rabies. Cats, cattle, and dogs are the most frequently reported rabid domestic animals in the United States.

What animals in Rhode Island carry rabies?
Animals that have tested positive for Rabies in Rhode Island include Raccoons, Skunks, Bats, Foxes, Cats.

How do animals get rabies?
The most common mode of rabies virus transmission is through the bite and virus-containing saliva of an infected host.

View an animated picture that follows the infectious path of the rabies virus.

What animals do not carry rabies?
Small rodents (such as squirrels, rats, mice, hamsters, guinea pigs, gerbils, and chipmunks,) and lagomorphs (such as rabbits and hares) are almost never found to be infected with rabies and have not been known to cause rabies among humans in the United States. Bites by these animals are usually not considered a risk of rabies unless the animal was sick or behaving in any unusual manner and rabies is widespread in your area. However, from 1985 through 1994, woodchucks accounted for 86% of the 368 cases of rabies among rodents reported to CDC.  Woodchucks or groundhogs ( Marmota monax) are the only rodents that may be frequently submitted to state health department because of a suspicion of rabies.